10-Week Political Education Curriculum

(all books marked with * are available in the RMLA Library)

Week 1: African Revolution: Methodology and Practice

Additional Readings:

• Consciencism (Kwame Nkrumah)*

• The German Ideology (Karl Marx)

• On Contradiction (Mao Zedong)*

• To Die For the People (Huey P. Newton)*

Additional RMLA PoliEd Audio:

• Philosophical Panafricanism

• Dialectical Method

• Dialectical Materialism

YouTube Video: Understanding Pan-African Philosophy Part 1 & Part 2 by Omawale Ru Pert-Hem-Ru

Week 2: Socialism and Revolution for Africa: Scientific or Afro-Socialism?

Recommended Readings:

• Walter Rodney, Decolonial Marxism (Chap 3)

• Walter Rodney, Decolonial Marxism (Chap 4)

• Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (pp. 20-22)

• Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Socialism, Uhuru and Ujamaa

Additional Readings:

• Collected Work of the Black Liberation Army *

Week 3: African History as World History Teach-in

Recommended readings:

• Cheikh Anta Diop “Civilisation or Barbarism” Foreword

• Cheikh Anta Diop “Civilisation or Barbarism” p.23

• Walter Rodney: Groundings with my Brothers chap 4

• Walter Rodney: Groundings with my Brothers chap 5

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 1)

• Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop discusses the African origin of humanity & civilization

Additional Readings/Lectures:

• Cheikh Anta Diop

• Black Man of the Nile

• Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Lies & Distortion: African History Revisited

• Destruction of a Black Civilisation (audiobook)

• Ishakamusa, Africa Light of the World

• Cheikh Anta Diop “Precolonial Black Africa”

Week 4: African Civilizations of Ancient Time

Recommended readings:

• Cheikh Anta Diop, African Origin of Civilization

• Walter Rodney (Groundings)

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5) 

• Dr. Henry Clarke

Additional Readings/Lectures:

• Black Man of the Nile

• Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Lies & Distortion: African History Revisited

• Destruction of a Black Civilisation (audiobook)

• Ishakamusa, Africa Light of the World

• Cheikh Anta Diop “Precolonial Black Africa”

Week 5: Africa and Religion: From African Spirituality to Christianity & Islam

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 8, episode 9)

• Dr. Henry Clarke (Jesus Explained)

• Ishakamusa (African Spiritual Concept of Religion)

Week 6: Africa of Empires and Kingdom

Recommended readings:

• Walter Rodney “How Europe Underdeveloped African,” Chap 1

• Cheikh Anta Diop “Precolonial Black Africa” 

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 10)

• History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 11)

• Songhai Empire: Africa’s age of Gold

• Mansa Abu Bakr

Week 7&8: Africa Contact with Europe: Exploration/Invasion and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Recommended readings:

• Walter Rodney, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 14, episode 16, episode 17)

Week 9: Africa Contact with Europe: Scramble for Africa

Recommended readings:

• Walter Rodney, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”

Recommended Documentary/lecture/video:

• History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi (episode 18, episode 19)

Link to Slides

Week 10: Africa Contact with Europe: Colonization and Imperialism 

Recommended readings:

• Walter Rodney, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”

Link to Slides

(Image: “A Sudden Hatred of Fields (Anansi #26)” -Leasho Johnson)